The Journal Of A Very Married Talon Tantiss
by Jedi-lover
Summary: This is a continuation of my original character's Journal from last year. This is mainly a story about OC Talon Tantiss and Ben Skywalker.
1. Chapter 1

**_NOTE: This is a continuation of last year's Dear Diary Challenge titled: The Journal of Talon Tantiss. I am going to attempt to write this year's diary so everybody can understand it, but I realize it is going to be difficult sometimes. This original character has been developed throughout a number of fanfics spanning two years._**

**_First there was the story Second to None which was a L/M love story, but it also explained the origin of Talon's father Mark Tantiss. Then there was The Journal of Mark Tantiss, followed by Second To None: Sacrifices. The first story introduced Talon Tantiss and the second fleshed out the character a bit. Finally there was The Journal of Talon Tantiss that fully characterized the man from his teens until his marriage. If you want to read any of these stories you can find them on this site. Just look at the stories listed on my profile._**

**_The first post is probably more of a rehash for people who didn't read the other stories._**

**_Thanks for reading!_**

**_~JL~_**

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_**ENTRY 1**_

_**45.2 ABY- Coruscant**_

I have kept a journal of my adventures since 32 ABY when I was just an eighteen-year-old Jedi Apprentice. Now I am thirty-one years of age, an experienced Jedi Knight, newly married and father to a boy named Marcus conceived during a short-lived previous relationship.

Anybody reading this journal in the future should probably read my diary from my days as a single man if you want the entire backstory of my life, but just in case that journal is ever destroyed or lost I will give any readers a quick review of my overly complex life so far.

My name is Talon Tantiss. I am the youngest son of retired Jedi Master Mark Tantiss and Kira Starkos Tantiss. I have a brother named Jaden who is currently married to Jysella Horn Tantiss and have a daughter named Jessa. They are Jedi Healers.

I am biologically related to the Skywalker and Solo family and through marriage I am linked to the Karrde Family. How we are all related is a key part to my story.

My father was a clone found deep within Emperor Palpatine's secret mountain facility on the planet Wayland. Around 8 or 9 ABY the crazy Jedi Joruus C'baoth had acquired Jedi Master Luke Skywalker DNA by way of his severed hand he lost on Bespin (how C'baoth got Master Skywalker's hand is still a mystery to me. Did a Bespin janitor sweep it up and decide to keep it? How did C'baoth get it? Was it on sale on the Holonet? _'For sale: Jedi lightsaber—comes with poseable Jedi hand!'_ Who knows?).

Anyway, crazy C'baoth took Skywalker's DNA and made two clones. One was a normal copy of Luke Skywalker, the other had its DNA manipulated to make him into a Imperial Sentinel—which is a genetically altered, three meter tall, muscular giant created to be a brain dead extension of C'baoth's will.

Mara Jade killed the regular sized clone but the extra large clone was saved before his intended chemical lobotomization and taken to Coruscant to be trained as a Jedi. That second clone is my father.

Dad has spent all of his life trying to hide the fact that he was Uncle Luke's genetic copy. He dyed his hair red and his irises green. Of course, his disguise was helped along by his enormous size. Instead he tells people he is Mara Jade's long lost brother. Because of this back-story I am officially known as the cousin to the large Skywalker family (oldest son Ben, twins Jak and Owen and daughter Hanna) and also a non-blood relative to the Solo children (twins Jaina and Jacen and younger brother Anakin). Of course I am a blood relative to both families because dad is Luke's clone and is considered the same as an identical twin brother…although they no longer look alike.

My dad never grew to the standard height of an Imperial Sentinel. He is 2.15 meters tall and weighs 125 kilograms—far less than the three-meter and the two hundred kilo frame of Imperial Sentinels of the past.

I was born, raised and trained at the temple along with all my cousins. As adults, my cousin Ben and I started dating the two daughters of Talon Karrde and his wife Zara Maru Karrde. I ended up marrying Zylie Karrde and Ben married Valla Karrde.

Which brings me to my current wedded status. We all got married in a joint ceremony and after going off on our separate honeymoons with our gorgeous brides Ben and I are finally back on Coruscant with our wives. While the ladies are off shopping, Ben and I have spent the last few hours checking out our impressive wedding gift from the Skywalker, Tantiss and Karrde families—a Wayfarer-class medium transport. It is a Freighter that not only has a massive cargo space, but a hanger bay module where Ben and I can store our StealthX fighters. Our parents purchased the ship so Zylie and Valla could continue working in the family trader business, but at the same time spend more time with their totally whipped husbands. Ha!

Zylie and Valla grew up on their father's ship _Wild Karrde_, so this is no big deal to them_. _This is going to be a unique experience for Ben and me. Luckily, Ben and I have been roommates at the Temple for the last few years, so we know we can get along. Now we need to find out if we can live on a freighter (albeit a large freighter) with our wives for the next…I don't know…forever. Till death do us part was what we all vowed. Hopefully we won't all get cabin fever and make that vow come to fruition prematurely.

I'll write more in this journal later. I need to get something to eat.


	2. Chapter 2

_**Entry 2**_

Our new ship came with two droids. I don't like droids. My father never liked droids either. I don't know why we have this particular aversion. I definitely know it is not genetic since my Uncle Luke is always around his astromech droid, R2-D2. My dad used to joke that if Luke stopped too abruptly Artoo Detoo would bump into his ass. I don't know if it's actually that bad, but I do see the two together a lot. Artoo is an extremely vocal and spunky droid that is just a little less annoying to me than my Aunt Leia's protocol droid, See Threepio. Ben says the little astromech is so perceptive and sensitive to his father's emotions that he sometimes wonders if the lack of memory wipes in the last four decades has made the little Artoo unit almost…sentient. That thought creeps me out. A sentient droid is not something I want to consider. It is like one of those horror holos where the droids become self-aware and rise up to kill all biological sentient life.

Unfortunately the ship is too large to run without either a pilot droid or a full six-man crew. I really don't want to live with more people, so I guess I will tolerate a droid.

Ben and I went to the flight deck to check out our new pilotmech. As we entered the ship's bridge, the droid rose from the pilot seat, made a slight bow and then said in a very deep, masculine voice. "Greetings Master Skywalker, Master Tantiss. I am I-Dee-Ten-Tee hybrid pilot/navigation/protocol droid at your service."

I have seen pilot droids before, but this droid was an unfamiliar model. It had the standard bipedal form like a C3PO unit, but the face didn't mimic human features. The head instead looked a little like a metallic silver Clone Trooper helmet, except instead of eye slits there was a 360-degree sensor around the crown of its metal skull.

Ben greeted the droid like he would a living person. I just laughed in the droid's face (or where its face would have been). "Who named you? Is that a factory designation?" I asked, fairly certain it wasn't.

The droid cocked its head to the side mimicking the human gesture of surprise. "Why no Master Tantiss. I am a highly unique droid specifically designed for this ship and the needs of the crew. As for my name, I believe your father gave me my nomenclature designation."

I smirked and turned away. "Figures."

My dad and I are both Void Jumper qualified and we've worked extensively as Jedi Assets in jump trooper units. Experienced soldiers like to harass young recruits by telling them to go to the supply office and pick up some I-D-Ten-T requisition forms. Of course when they get to the supply room the supply sergeant would tell him he's busy and ask the recruit to write down the form number for him. The soldier would write down ID10T and realize he was just pranked. ID10T…or IDIOT!

"Why don't I call you Ten-Tee for short," I said to the droid.

"That would be more than acceptable Master Tantiss."

As we left the flight deck Ben gave me a curious look. I smirked at my redheaded cousin. "I'll tell you later. Let's check out the medical droid."

We went down the corridor to the small medical bay. There was a 2-1B surgical droid. Like the pilot droid it was bipedal with masculine programing and an overly cheerful disposition. We didn't get a chance to examine the medical facility extensively because our wives finally returned to the ship…and I got a surprise more unpleasant than learning I would have to live with two droids. Zylie must have stopped by her father's ship docked nearby because she returned with her pet vornskr, _Princess_.

I never once considered that she would take her vicious pet from her father's ship and bring it onto ours. As they entered the freighter the animal's eyes locked onto mine. I could sense through the Force the vornskr's intense dislike for me right before the beast broke out in trot, barreling down the corridor in my direction. I have no idea why that vornskr hates me. She has yet to take a bite out of me, but I know she is just looking for an excuse.

"_Princess_ heel!" Zylie yelled out to her pet. The coarse-haired vornskr skidded to a halt about a meter from me while raising her head and exposing very large and sharp teeth. I moved to walk around the animal, but that prompted a deep rumbling growl from the vornskr.

I sighed deeply as I heard Ben chuckle from behind me. He bent down on a knee and called the animal over to him. The large beast gave me a warning look as it moved around me to Ben and allowed my cousin to scratch behind her ears.

"You are such a good girl!" Ben said in a singsong voice as the canine's back paw started to judder up and down in a contented involuntary response to having her fur stroked. Eventually the animal rubbed her head against Ben's chest before it delivered a wet slobbery lick to his face.

I shuddered. There was no way I was going to let a vornskr get that close to my face or any other parts of my body that were not easily replaceable by cybernetics.

"I don't know why she likes you," I said to Ben.

Ben gave me a toothy grin. "Because I'm not scared of her," he said matter-of-factly.

I gave a dismissive snort as I watched my cousin fawning over the vornskr. "I'm not scared of _Princess_." As if by cue, the animal turned and snarled at me. I instinctively jumped back about a meter eliciting laughter from the group. "Okay, maybe I am a little skittish around her." I turned back to Zylie. "Are you seriously going to bring her onboard?"

Zylie gave me that pouty face she always pulls on me to make me give in to her demands…but not this time.

"Talon, I've had Princess half of my life…thirteen years."

I shook my head. "I don't want that animal on board."

Zylie looked over to Valla. "_Princess_ is our pet. She belongs to Valla as much as me. You're not going to deprive both of us of our childhood pet, are you?"

Valla gave me an identical pleading look with pouting lips and sad hazel eyes. I heard Ben laugh softly behind me. "You're beat Talon." He walked over to his wife, putting an arm around her and pulling her close so he could kiss her on the cheek. He looked back to me and grinned. "We've never won an argument with these two, why do you think you're going to start now?"

"Well, I'm going to start now," I protested. "I'm a pittin person, not a canine person."

Zylie came over to me laying her delicate hands across my chest and gazing up with a vivacious smile. "Why don't we go to our cabin and discuss this _privately_."

I gave a frustrated groan. I knew as soon as we were in our quarters she would exercise the full power of her feminine wiles on me. She grabbed the sleeve of my tunic and started pulling me toward our cabin.

"Don't do it Talon," Ben laughed at my plight. "Once you step through that door you'll promise her anything. You'll be cleaning up vornskr excrement for the foreseeable future."

Ben's wife Valla playfully slapped his shoulder. "Whose side are you on anyway?"

Ben turned to his wife and grinned. "Why yours, honey." He gave her a wink. "Let's lock up the ship and maybe we can have a long, private discussion in our cabin also."

I heard Valla giggle. "Why Jedi Skywalker, I would love to…discuss things privately."

As Zylie and I disappeared into our cabin I knew this was not an dispute I was going to win. Oh well. I do enjoy Zylie's persuasive arguments. Ha!

Maybe I can program ID-10-T to pick up vornskr poodoo. It was worth a try.


	3. Chapter 3

_**Entry 3**_

As expected, I crumbled under Zylie's highly persuasive negotiation style. Oh well, I made her work for it. She spent hours persuading me. Ha!

We ended up installing an extra large kennel in the cargo room and an indoor animal waste system, which consisted of a large patch of synthetic grass over a drainage grid that led to a drip pan. Since nobody really wanted to change the drip pan I ended up getting a plumber to run a waste line from the bottom of the pan to the ship's 'fresher drainline. We had a valve installed that would trigger at set intervals flushing the liquid waste into the drainpipe. The only thing that had to be done by hand (or by a hand wrapped in a plastobag) was to manually remove the feces and throw the bag into the ship's garbage compactor and then spray the grass with an anti-odor, bacteria eliminating enzyme. Zylie promised me that was one job I would never have to do. She probably could have convinced me to perform that particular nauseating duty if she wanted to, but I guess she didn't want to press her luck.

With that out of the way, all that was left was the task of naming our ship. That was a lot harder than I thought it would be.

These are the names we looked at but rejected:

1. Deep Ship (my suggestion)  
2. Ship for Brains (also mine)  
3. Karrde's Kids (Ben's suggestion)  
4. Fastidiots (Zylie explained that this was a play on the word fastidious. I must have looked confused because Ben informed me that fastidious was another word for pedantic. Seeing my blank face, Valla gave me the definition of pedantic. Ben then asked me if I slept through all my classes in Basic)  
5. Empty Space (Zylie's suggestion…and for some reason she was looking at me when she proposed that name)  
6. Sloshed Spacer (mine)  
7. Sunava Beach (also mine)  
8. The Spayed Vornskr (Definitely mine. I was told that _wasn't _funny…but it is.)  
9. Just Flying Around (Valla's)  
10. Major Altitude (Ben's)  
11. Dames and Knights (Mine)  
12. Ships-N-Giggles (Zylie)  
13. Wedded Bliss (Ben got an enthusiastic kiss from his wife for this suggestion)  
14. Suck My Wake (This resulted in a slap to my head from my wife)  
15. Star Wake (Ben)  
16. Wide Load (Mine)  
17. Skyrunner (Ben)  
18. Skywalker (Of course, Ben)  
19. Red Knight (Ben)  
20. Hot Knights (Mine. I really liked this one)  
21. Sexy Knights (I liked this one better)  
22. Hot-N-Sexy Knights (This was the best of my suggestions)  
23. Neutered Knights (Zylie's suggestion after, according to her, I made one too many cretinous suggestions…and by cretinous I assume she meant AWESOME!)

Finally, our wives told us to forget about having a ship designation with any reference to Jedi Knights or the Skywalker name. For professional reasons, the ship was registered under the Karrde Corporation and it wouldn't be a good business practice to let people know Jedi Knights were aboard. Although their trade profession was entirely legal, businessmen and women were wary about dealing with Force-users, especially while making a business deal.

I suggested the ship be named after the ladies aboard. So we looked at _VallaZylie_ or the _ZylieValla_. Not liking the sound of those proposals, the ladies settled on _Vazy_—from the first two letters of Valla and Zylie. It was a short name, but I liked it.

"So it's settled," I said. "We'll call the ship _Vazy_ after the lovely women on board." I went to get up from the dining table when I heard a low rumbling growl from under the kitchen tabletop followed by the clicking of sharp claws on the durasteel deck. Zylie's vornskr crawled out from where she was hiding and laid her chin on the table like she was going to beg for food scraps.

"Oh, she's upset that you forgot one female," Zylie said as she scratched behind the animal's ears.

"The _Vazy Princess_," Valla shouted out. "That sounds so much better."

Both ladies enthusiastically agreed. I wasn't thrilled about having the word _Princess_ in the name of my ship…especially since it is the name of my evil nemesis. Ben liked it though, so I agreed in order to keep the peace.

I still think _Hot-N-Sexy Knights_ would have been a much better name.


	4. Chapter 4

_**Entry 4**_

Ben and I officially moved out of the bachelor quarters at the Temple. Luckily neither of us had a lot of personal items and our gear fit nicely in the ship's cabins. The ladies were another story.

Exactly how many shoes does a woman need? Apparently something upwards of twenty when it comes to Zylie. Then there are dresses, tunics, trousers, frilly undergarments, waistcoats, three-fourth length coats and long coats. I am looking into my cabin's closet and I have about one-tenth of the closet area. My Jedi robes and civilian clothing are crammed tightly against Zylie's huge wardrobe. I am thinking Ben and I may have to take some of the storage space from the cargo room and make a giant walk-in closet for the ladies…or for us guys. At least the two staterooms are fairly large, each with a double bed, dresser and desk with a computer and HoloNet terminal.

We are preparing to go on a shipping run for Karrde's organization. This meant we had to make sure we had all our supplies, maintenance tools and spare parts for our StealthX fighters and our astromech droids (damn I forgot about those guys. I will be living with FOUR droids).

I went to the pet store and bought huge bags of carnivore chow for _Princess_. I am hoping two fifty-kilo bags will be enough. I am not looking forward to seeing how much poodoo a hundred kilos of food will generate. Luckily picking up vornskr crap is not in my job description.

Ben and I met with the Grand Master who briefed us on our responsibilities as "roving Jedi". We had to be self-sufficient when it came to maintenance and on-call at all times to react to Jedi missions in the areas where we were travelling. It looks like I will help Ben in any Jedi Sentinel missions and he will be back me up on Jedi Guardian operations.

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_**Entry 5**_

Well, we are off on our first shipping run. Valla and the pilot droid ID10T powered up the large freighter and lifted off smoothly. Zylie and Valla have both piloted their father's ship _'Wild Karrde'_ before, so this is not much different. Eventually Ben and I will have to become accustomed to the controls. We are pilots, but our experience is mostly confined to small fighters. I don't think I'd have a problem flying this colossal ship, but docking it is another matter. I would imagine parallel parking a hover train would be easier that putting this ship into a small docking space. Fortunately the pilot droid would probably prevent me from crashing into anything.

While in flight we developed a schedule for food prep and cleaning. We would rotate as to who cooks the meals, cleans and does the laundry. I am sure everything will work out fine.

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_**Entry 6**_

I just discovered that the only thing Zylie knows how to cook is '_burnt_'. Burnt steak, burnt cookies, and burnt flat cakes. The only food she hasn't burnt is the cereal, but I am sure if she could find a way to scorch a cold meal, she would. It turns out that her mother did almost all the cooking for the _Wild Karrde_ crew.

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_**Entry 7**_

Ben must have learned all of his culinary skills from his mother. When he had cooking duty we were given heated up ration bars and instant meals.

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_**Entry 8**_

Valla somehow burnt my cereal.

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_**Entry 9**_

Surprise, surprise, the son of a world famous chef knows how to cook. My mother would show me how to make all types of great dishes when I was a boy. Therefore I got the chance to show off my culinary skills. For breakfast we had gartro egg omelets with Tatooine crepes. For lunch we feasted on Mongo Beefhead patty sliders with a triple cheese topping. Dinner consisted of Creamed Rishi corned soup and Shawda Clubb sandwiches. For dessert I made up some Warra nut cookies.

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_**Entry 10**_

Ben, Zylie and Valla took a vote and decided I should be the ship's head cook. I told them that unless they wanted vornskr burgers on the menu they should rethink that vote.

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_**Entry 11**_

There was a second vote and it was decided that a food synthesizer should be purchased for the ship as soon as possible. Until then I guess I'll be cooking…otherwise I think I'll starve.


	5. Chapter 5

_**Entry 12**_

In the past week I realized living onboard a ship is a lot more difficult than expected. Although Ben and I roomed together for years without conflict and Zylie and I spent long blissful weekends together prior to our marriage…living with another couple is _completely_ different. The main complication is Valla. Now don't get me wrong. Valla is a wonderful woman. She is easy to get along with and I really like her. The problem is…she's not my wife…so walking around in my underwear is now frowned upon. I could do it as a bachelor around my roommate or my girlfriend, but doing it around Valla is not an option.

It's not that I always walk around semi-nude, but at night I sleep in my boxer-briefs. So now when I wander out of my cabin in the middle of the sleep cycle to use the 'fresher I have to ensure I'm decent. Recently I've been pulling my jedi cloak on when I go to the 'fresher. Zylie said when I do that I look like a perverted Jedi Flasher. That made me chuckle.

Cohabitating with women also takes some getting used to…because the most inoculous things appear to irritate them.

The number one irritant is me or Ben leaving the toilet seat up. Zylie told me I should put the toilet seat down after I use the 'fresher or else it might cause her to fall into the toilet. I pointed out to her that men sit down on the toilet also and, as far as I know, no male has ever accidentally fallen into a toilet.

Well, she didn't appreciate the logic of that argument. Therefore, I promised to put the seat down after I use the latrine, but after forgetting to do this about a trillion times (according to her) I decided to leave the seat down permanantly. Which brought us to problem number two…my aim. Now she's telling me to make sure I put the seat up when I have to take a leak beause my aim isn't perfect. I told her that she is more than welcome to help me zero my weapon. Ha! She was not amused...so I am back to lifting the seat and forgetting to put it down. And it is not just Zylie getting irritate with me. Valla also is vocal about this situation. I suggested that we have a second 'fresher installed-one for the men and one for the ladies. That recommendation was shot down because supposedly it would be far too expensive.

Which brings me to problem number three.-changing the roll of toilet paper. I obviously can't figure out when this needs to be done. I probably don't notice the empty role because I am concentrating so hard on not forgetting to put the toilet seat down. I guess Ben doesn't have this problem because he lived with his parents for a really_, really_ long time. He had his mother and sister Hanna nagging him into shape.

But Ben is not totally immune, which brings us to problem number four. More than once Zylie has walked out of the 'fresher with a pair of tighty-whitey underwear held out at arms length and with a extreme look of disgust on her face. "Ben you left you underwear on the floor near the 'fresher shower!" she would call out.

"How do you know it's not Talon's?" her sister would ask.

"Because Talon wears sexy red or blue boxer briefs or shape-lifting basket briefs!" She announced to the entire ship.

Stang! That's a little too much information Zylie. Your sister doesn't need to know the color and style of my undergarments. Oh well, at least Zylie didn't mention that mesh tanga she bought me.

Everyday I find out something else I am doing wrong. I went into the small med center to get some headache medicine and the 2-1B med-droid requested to examine my ears. When I asked him why he said he overheard my wife saying I had, _'selective hearing'_. I reassured 2-1B that selective hearing is not an actual medical problem, but instead it's a_ timing_ problem…like the time Zylie wanted to talk about ...I don't remember the topic…but it was during the final two minutes of a shockball game that went into triple overtime.

I'm such a screw-up as a husband.

I'm really trying hard, but I wouldn't be surprised if Zylie divorced me before our honeymoon phase is over. I called up my dad for advice. He's been happily married for decades. He told me he did all of the same annoying things and his marriage survived. He said he's never heard of a woman divorcing her husband for not putting a toilet seat down. Women leave men because of infidelity, addictions, financial problems, trust issues or abuse. My dad advised me to treat her like I did when we were dating, court her, love her and be loyal and I'll be alright.

My father makes it sound easy. Maybe it is that simple.

Be that as it may, I still think having two 'freshers is a good idea.


	6. Chapter 6

_**Entry 13**_

In the past week things have been getting slightly better with the living arrangements. It just took some getting used to. It did help that I programed ID10T to tidy up the 'fresher. Boy, that didn't go over well with the droid. He explained to me in great detail that he was a very sophisticated pilot/navigator/protocol droid and that perhaps I should purchase a cleaning droid. I told him I have four droids on the ship already and I have reached my limit…therefore if he didn't want to find himself shot out the airlock he can periodically go to the 'fresher and ensure there is toilet paper, the seat is down and any discarded clothing was put in the laundry. Ten-Tee doesn't have humanoid facial features but his slumped head told me he was unhappy with my decision…if his programing allows him to be unhappy that is.

I told the droid. "Hey, it could be worse. I could put you on vornskr poodoo removal duty."

The droid made a weird noise that sounded like a sigh. "Yes, Master Tantiss…my lot in life could surely be worse. I could be sent to the Mon Gazza Spice Mines."

I rolled my eyes. "Aren't you being a little overdramatic? It's not like I'm making you the cleaning droid of a skinholo theater. Your job isn't bad. Just be thankful you're not a sewage repair droid or a Hutt gastroenterologist droid."

ID10T was silent for a moment. "May I ask sir, did I displease you in some manner? Why was I chosen for these extra duties and not 2-1B?"

I scoffed. "The surgical droid? Why would I want to irritate a droid that can sedate me, open me up and rearrange my internal organs?"

ID10T turned his head towards me. "Sir, may I point out that it is impossible for 2-1B to do anything counter to his programing. If you are postulating impossible scenarios one would think you would be more concerned about a fatal error made by your pilot droid."

My eyes narrowed. Did this droid just threaten me? I think he noticed my look of disbelief because he quickly added, "Of course all droids aboard this ship are programed to ensure the safety of the crew."

I glared at Ten-Tee as I left the flight deck. I knew there was a reason why I didn't like droids.

* * *

_**Entry 14**_

Ben and I were called out on our very first assignment as roving Jedi. Valla and Zylie would have to continue this shipment run without us. Cargo ports are dangerous, so I was a little worried, but it turns out her father had foreseen this possibility. Zylie said her dad made arrangements for private security guards to meet the ship and provide protection if Ben and I were ever called away. That is a load off my mind. Zylie and Valla have been to hundreds or ports, but Aves, Chin or their parents were always with them. This galaxy is a dangerous place and nothing demonstrates that better than the mission we were now called to perform.

Ben and I are going to the planet Vandelhelm where we would contact the commander of the Galactic Alliance Security or GAS (that sounds so stupid. Who names a government organization with the acronym GAS. I guess it could be worse, it could be GAG).

Vandelhelm is a heavily industrial planet best known for their extensive mining operations. The planet's large industrial base attracted hundreds of thousands of guest workers in recent years to labor in factories or the mines. There was a need for strong backs because much of the ore being excavated gave off energy emissions that interfered with the function of mining droids. Because of the huge influx of male miners, Vandelhelm eventually ended up with a misbalance between men and women. This, unfortunately, resulted in a growing pleasure slave trade on the planet. The local governing barons gave a blind eye to the problem since happy workers were productive workers. It wasn't until the daughter of a high-ranking aristocrat was kidnapped that the problem was brought to the attention of GAS. After all, you can't have the young daughter of somebody important passed around the barracks. It makes me sick to my stomach when leaders overlook crimes until it affects them.

Ben and I said goodbye to our wives, fired up our StealthX's and headed out to Vandelhelm. The planet is along the Rimma Trade Route that the _Vazy Princess _was currently traveling. With any luck we would find the missing girl and be able to rendezvous with our ship at its last cargo drop off on Sullust.

It felt good to be flying. I was getting claustrophobic in that ship. I know I am literally in a much smaller ship now, but looking out of the canopy I felt free. The ship was an extension of my body and I was flying out among the stars.

I toggled the radio to a private channel to Ben's fighter. "This is _Vazy Two_ to_ Vazy One_."

Ben responded, "You're coming in loud and clear." Ben pulled his fighter next to mine so I could see him.

"We need better call signs."

"I am not going to call you _Hot and Sexy Knight_, if that is what you are getting at." I could hear Ben chuckle.

"How about the _Vornskr Slayer_?"

"I am fairly sure Zylie wouldn't appreciate that call sign." There was a slight pause. "How about _Red Knight_?"

"For me?" I asked confused.

"No, for me."

"I guess."

We flew in silence for a short time before I broached the subject that was on my mind. "How is married life treating you?"

"I love it!" I could tell Ben was smiling as he talked. "How about you?"

"I love it also…but I am having a hard time adjusting to living on a ship. I miss going out to the clubs and holotheaters with Zylie. I miss fresh air."

"Did Coruscant have fresh air?" Ben joked. "Seriously, I know what you mean. It is a bit confining."

"If it wasn't for all the hot sex I would have gone crazy by now."

"Too much information, Talon," Ben said with a chuckle.

"No…telling you what we did last night would be too much information."

"Talon…we shouldn't be discussing private matters behind our wives' backs. I don't want them finding out and getting mad."

I laughed. "Gods, you are whipped."

"So said Lord Talon exulted Emperor of the Whipped Ones. All hail our supreme leader."

"Shut up." I looked over my instrument panel. "I'm going to take a nap. I'll let my R9 take over."

"You should give him a name."

"I'm not naming a droid. They're not pittins."

"Mine has a name."

I rolled my eyes. "What's your R9's name?"

"Niner."

"Well that _is_ creative. I think I'll call mine R-Nine. _Vasy Two_ out."

I turned off the radio and informed R-Nine that he was in charge and please don't fly me into a black hole. It beeped out some gibberish that I hope was an affirmative. I don't care what Ben says, I am not going to name these damn droids and I'm not going to treat them like people. They are just as sentient as our new food synthesizer and I don't see anybody talking to that.

I'll write more when we get to our destination. Now is the time to rest.


	7. Chapter 7

_**Entry 15**_

It took over twenty hours to get to Vandelhelm. Fortunately I only had to relieve myself once utilizing our brand new StealthX pilot urine collection system—officially called the _Mission Lengthening Device _or MLD. Zylie thought that was an extremely funny name for an inflatable cup that goes over my private parts and is connected to a suction hose. She asked me exactly what it was supposed to lengthen. Ha ha, really funny.

The MLD is worn under my flight suit. The system automatically detects moisture and activates the suction that pulls the urine into a disposable bag. It's much more efficient than using handheld piss-n-bags which consisted of a sealable plastobag with a highly absorbent sponge inside. Unfortunately, the suction has to be strong enough to not only pull the urine quickly away from the body, but to make a tight seal between the cup and my body. It is a _very _unnerving sensation, in fact, the first time I used it I startled so much I whacked my head against the back of my seat. Later, I made the big mistake of telling Ben this because he ribbed me unmercifully for weeks about my overly enthusiastic MLD.

I'm digressing again; let me get back to the story.

Ben and I land on Vandelhelm and took an airspeeder to GAS headquarters. There we met Captain Norrkin, a tall, burly human with a ridiculously thin mustache. He asked us to take a seat across from his desk as he started the briefing. The GAS commander activated a holoprojector on his desk and we watched what looked like a security cam holovid.

"The young woman there is Baron Zekl's daughter Sola Zekl." The commander pointed to a pretty blond girl in her late teens. After a moment a speeder van pulls up next to her and two masked men burst out of the rear of the vehicle, grab the girl, push her into the van and sped off. "We tracked the speeder to the warehouse district where they exited the vehicle and entered an abandoned warehouse. Holocams didn't record anybody exiting the building, but there are underground pedestrian tunnels that could be accessed from the structure. Unfortunately there were no security cams in the area where they could have entered the underpasses and we couldn't find any further visual evidence of the kidnappers or the girl."

"So they can be anywhere." Ben said as he studied the holo. "Do you have sniffers out?"

I turned to him. "Sniffers?" Ben was a Jedi Sentinel trained in security and investigation. I was a Guardian and mainly a ground pounder. I worked in the battlefield. I've never heard of a _sniffer_.

Ben turned to me. "It is a highly sensitive hoverdroid that continuously samples the air and analyzes for DNA. Get a sample of the daughter's DNA from her toothbrush, obtain a DNA profile and program it into the sniffer. The droid then goes throughout the city looking for that particular DNA profile floating about. It works a little like police canines that track by smell."

"Why would her DNA be floating around?"

Ben shifted in his chair so he could look directly at me. "Because Talon, humans shed approximately 400,000 epidermal cells from our skin everyday. In addition, our saliva contains DNA by way of buccal epithelial cells and white blood cells. Talking, sneezing, coughing or spitting can spread that DNA into the environment. A woman getting kidnapped would struggle, kick, and scream and therefore shed a great deal of cells into the environment."

"And that's exactly what happened, Jedi Skywalker." Captain Norrkin pushed a few buttons and another image emerged from the holoprojector. "The sniffers found her DNA in the following areas." He gestured to a map with an area shaded in red. "We found DNA from where she left her home and traveled by personal speeder to a parking lot. She exited the lot and was walking down the pedestrian pathway when she was abducted. We believe the large search area may be due to the wind blowing around any shed epidermis cells. That, or the kidnappers moved her to a different speeder and drove around with the windows open."

Ben looked at the map for a moment. "Did you recover the speeder?"

"We did. It was stolen and the captors activated a delayed detonation device to burn the vehicle. We didn't get any useful DNA samples of our conspirators."

Ben nodded. "They're smart. Why do you think she was snatched by a slave ring?"

The Captain smoothed out his mustache with his fingers as he talked. "There's been no ransom demand and the area she was in was highly populated by pleasure brothels and clubs."

I frowned at that comment. "Why would a young girl go there?"

The Captain shrugged his shoulders. "There is a mall area near there that is a bit seedy but some rich people find it trendy to go to these edgy parts of town. Also, some youngsters frequent the area to buy spice sticks or other intoxicants."

"Did Sola use?" Ben asked.

"We did a toxicology test on hair strands taken from her hairbrush at her home and we didn't find any evidence of drug use. Our street informants have heard rumors that she was sighted in a club called _Euphoria_. We don't have enough information to get a search permit. We sent undercover officers in, but no luck. We've heard good things about your Jedi Sentinel training. We are hoping you can help."

"We'll need some local clothing," Ben told the Captain. "And we'll go in to see what we find."


	8. Chapter 8

**_I want to get this journal entry down before I forget everything that happened._**

**_Our little undercover mission was both amusing and horrifying at the same time._**

* * *

_**ENTRY 16**_

Ben and I were given well-worn and stained mineworker clothing to wear. They were ugly, but at least they didn't stink. We were also provided handheld DNA analyzers or _mini-sniffers _for the investigation.

It took us most of the day to prepare. There was a lot more to undercover work than I thought. First of all, Ben and I had to research the club's history, blueprints, and a map of the surrounding area. Then I had to work on getting rid of my Coruscanti accent. Honestly, I never considered myself as having an accent. Outer Core speakers were the ones with the accents. Uncle Luke has a rimworld accent and so does Ben. My Aunt Mara has something in between. Ben said I enunciate certain words in a way that would make me stand out on Vandelhelm.

He also said I walk too much like a Jedi; I should slouch my shoulders more. We were supposed to be miners who work long, exhausting, soul crushing hours in horrific conditions. It took a while, but by the end of the day he said I had a passable mid-rim accent and looked despondent enough to impersonate a local.

We took public transportation to the pleasure brothel district and walked to the club _Euphoria_. The giant Barabel bouncer outside gave us a cursory look and waved us through. We passed through weapons sensors, but we were using electronic confounders to hide the presence of our lightsabers under our jackets.

The place was packed—mainly with humans although there were some Sullustans milling about. Almost all of the males were wearing various types of work clothing. The women…well they weren't wearing much of anything. Oddly enough, in all that background information we read about club_ Euphoria, _not once did it mention that it was a topless establishment…but it is. Ben was next to me and he stopped dead in his tracks when he saw a herd of bouncing boobs passing by (or is the correct term pack or flock? Ha!). He made some funny choking noise as his face turned redder than his hair.

Great! He was worried about me blowing our cover with my accent and now he's freezing up. I pulled him aside to talk. "Ben, we're supposed to be hardened miners coming to the club to drink and kriff women. You can't be standing here like a Krugga deer trapped in a speeder's headlights."

Ben cleared his throat and I can tell he was steeling himself for what we had to do. "Stang Talon. I'm not like you. I've never been to a pleasure house before. I didn't think it would be like this."

I was taken aback by that comment. "You're not like me? Why would you think I frequented pleasure houses in the past?"

He shrugged. "There was that rumor about you…"

"Stop!" I interrupted him knowing exactly what he was going to say. "I heard that particular rumor and it's _not_ true, I don't care what the sleemo gossip holozines say! Even with the Force it is humanly impossible to do what they said I did." I was getting a little irate. Awful rumors followed me throughout my late teens and early twenties after a HoloNet gossip show speculated that I was Luke Skywalker's lovechild—which I'm not! I would look exactly like my father if he didn't dye his hair red and eyes green. That erroneous report began a chain reaction of slanderous stories about me. With very few exceptions everything written about my reportedly incessant sexual proclivity was completely false. "Stang, Ben! I can't believe you believed that drivel." I gave a dry chuckle. "Besides, nobody has that much endurance!"

Ben's face flushed with embarrassment. "Sorry Talon. I figured if anybody could pull off that stunt it would be you." A queasy smile crossed his face. "I guess we should look around and discretely ask questions."

"Sure," I said while giving him a hard look for believing that rumor.

We walked around looking for any women who resembled Sola. The entire time Ben kept his head up and eyes forward and avoided looking at any female from the neck down. I gave a silent chuckle. I'm sure nobody would find that suspicious (he wrote sarcastically).

Not wanting to look too conspicuous we eventually ordered some drinks and found a table to sit at. As soon as we were seated a couple lovely ladies took the opportunity to sit on our laps. "Hi lover," a buxom green Twi'lek whispered in my ear seductively as she ran a hand down my chest. "Do you want a date?"

In the prostitution trade, _'date'_ is a polite euphemism for _kriff._ I gave her my best smirk. "I would love to, but I only have enough credits for my drink. If you are willing to give me a freebie or do something on layaway, that'll work." I was desperately hoping the answer would be '_No'_, because I wasn't sure how well I could fake impotency after being surrounded by a room full of scantily clad women.

Luckily, the Twi'lek quickly stood and glowered at me. "Come back on payday." She then briskly walked away. I laughed and looked over to Ben and was shocked by what I saw. He had a big breasted, red skinned Zeltron sitting on his lap. She was nibbling on his ear while her hands explored places they shouldn't be exploring. Ben sat wide-eyed and appeared to have trouble breathing. It was like somebody had a Force hold on him. I then realized what was going on. That Zeltron was exuding pheromones that discombobulated my poor cousin's brain. Unless you are expecting it, a Zeltron can get the best of a Jedi…I should know.

I guffawed at Ben's panicked expression. This is one time I can save him, instead of the other way around. "Hey beautiful," I murmured to the topless dancer as I stood and gently pulled her hand off Ben's upper thigh. "We don't have the credits and we don't want the establishment's heavies breaking our legs for not paying for a _date_." I gave her an apologetic look. "Sorry."

She smiled as she stood. "It's too bad." She looked down at my redheaded cousin. "He's cute." She gave me a wave and walked off. I turned back to Ben whose face was as white as a Wompa.

"What the hell was that?" he gasped.

I chuckled. "You just experienced Zeltron pheromones on overload. If I didn't save you she probably would have your last credit."

Ben buried his head in his hands. "Kriff! Valla is going to kill me."

"Why? Nothing happened." I sat back down. "Just don't tell her. I won't tell her."

Ben shook his head. "I can't lie to her. She'll know I'm hiding something and she'll just assume the worst."

I rolled my eyes. "Fine, I'll explain to Valla that you were in a Zeltron pheromone haze when you allowed the woman to grope you."

"Not funny, Talon." He turned to me. "Why didn't she affect you?"

I smirked. "Ben I dated a Zeltron for years. Remember Nalli'ti? If I didn't learn how to block out her pheromones I would have been watching romance holoflicks and going to the opera every weekend. Before I figured out how to resist her chemical manipulations she had me going to ballroom dancing classes with her! Ballroom dancing!"

That got a faint smile from him. "Thanks for saving me." Ben took a couple deep, cleansing breaths. "Let's mingle and ask questions. I want to be out of here as soon as possible."

* * *

**_I will write more about what happened later. Ben caught me writing in this journal and is now threatening me with bodily harm if I am recounting his embarrassing encounter with a Zeltron._**

* * *

**_ENTRY- CLOSED & ENCRYPTED._**


	9. Chapter 9

_**I have some time to write. I'll try to recall as much as I can before I forget all the details.**_

* * *

_**Entry 17**_

We spent a couple hours talking to people in the club while nursing our drinks. Ben put up a good front, but I could sense he was extremely uncomfortable with this mission. I don't blame him, Valla and Zylie are not going to be happy about this. Of course, it's not like they have anything to worry about; none of these women can compare to the Karrde sisters. Ben and I won the MegaCredit Lotto jackpot when we snagged those two.

We had a small photo of Sola on flimsifilm paper. We would show it to the male customers saying we are looking for our favorite girl who left another establishment and was supposedly working in the area. To our surprise we found two men who claimed they saw her and one of the men said he had sex with her in this very club two days ago. He even mentioned a small birthmark on her thigh. We would have to access Sola's medical records or talk to her father to see if she had a birthmark that matched that description. It is possible that he was simply with a lookalike.

Ben tried to press him for more information about Sola's health and frame of mind, but the man suddenly became evasive. "What's this about? She was fine when I left her. If something happened to her it's not on me."

Ben threw his hands up in a placating gesture. "Hey, we're just trying to find a friend." We walked away from the men before they got more suspicious. When we were out of earshot Ben nudged me with his elbow. "I sense they were lying."

Ben is much better at detecting people's emotions than I am. I guess that is why I didn't become a Sentinel. He has to be an expert on reading people, not only through the Force but also by their mannerisms and body language. My job is much easier. Just point me toward the enemy and I kill anything waving a weapon in my direction.

"I didn't notice anything odd, other than they appeared a little nervous. Why would they lie?"

Ben shrugged. "I don't know, but their story sounded rehearsed."

"Should we follow them?"

Ben shook his head. "I put micro-trackers on their jackets. I'll be able to see where they went without having to shadow them."

I gave Ben a sidelong glance. "I'm impressed. I didn't see you do that."

He shrugged off the compliment. "I just used the Force to place them under their collars."

I had to smile at Ben's modesty. His control of the Force always dwarfed my telekinetic abilities. It's true that I could Force shove better than him, but I didn't have any subtle control; brute force was my forte.

I cautiously pulled out the DNA analyzer from my pocket. "My sensor doesn't show any DNA readings indicating Sola was ever here."

"Same here." Ben looked around the crowded room. "But look at this place. It's packed and I assume it's scrubbed down at closing." He shuddered at the thought. "I really hope the 'fresher is scrubbed down at least. There is way too much DNA inside that facility." He turned to me. "If she's here she's probably in the backrooms where all the sex is happening. I need you to go back there and check it out."

"What?" I regarded Ben questioningly. "I'm sure the Captain's undercover agents already scanned the backrooms."

"That was three days ago. She might not have been there then. Also you have your Force abilities that will help you look for her."

I looked over to the huge human bouncer guarding the door leading to the rear part of the building. "Ben, I could use a mind trick to get past the guard, but I am sure this place is packed with security cams. If I'm seen going back there without a girl, security will come running."

"Then go in with a girl," Ben insisted.

I folded my arms over my chest. "No way! I'm not going to put myself in a situation that is going to get me divorced."

He shook his head. "I'm not asking you to have sex. Just get to the backrooms so the sensors can take a DNA sample, do a little Force reconnaissance, then make some excuse and get out."

My eyes went wide. "Why don't _you_ go do it yourself?"

Ben's face tightened. "Because you are much more comfortable around women than I am. You've dated dozens of women before you hooked up with Zylie."

My eyes narrowed. "Not that many."

"Talon, I'll be the first to admit that I am outside my comfort zone right now. I can feel my face is already flushed. My skin is probably redder than a Devaronian's."

That got a chuckle out of me. "It _is_ a lovely shade of mortified red."

Ben looked at me gravely. "And that means I'll look suspicious."

I sighed as I rubbed a hand over my face. "Fine, I'll do it." I reached into my pockets and pulled out some credits. "Do you know the going rate?"

Ben frowned. "Why would I know the going rate for a prostitute?"

I rolled my eyes. "Because the mighty Sentinel was supposed to research all aspects of this mission."

"Oh," Ben looked down embarrassed. "Sorry, I missed that detail." He reached into his pocket and pulled out some credits. "This should be enough."

"Great. Just kriff'n great. If Zylie divorces me…this is on your head, Ben." I gave him a tight smile that probably looked more like a scowl. "Wish me luck." I turned and searched for a suitable lady. I wanted to avoid Zeltrons. I may be good at resisting their pheromones, but why risk it. I settled on a bouncy blond that was flittering around the room propositioning men. I moved up next to her and put a hand on her shoulder. "You working?"

She turned to me and smiled. "I am. Do you want a date?"

"I don't have many credits. How much?"

She gave me a sultry look. "It depends on what you want?"

_I am going to kill Ben for putting me in this situation. _

"Umm…just a…umm. What's your cheapest…thing?"

"A Coruscanti Swirl is fifty credits."

I wasn't sure what that meant, but I agreed. "Where do we go?"

"In the backroom." She motioned me to follow.

I made sure the handheld DNA sensor was activated as I followed her through the doorway and down a long hall. She finally brought me to a small chamber that held a full-size bed covered with some nasty stained sheets. It took all my willpower not to shudder. I am fairly sure if we put this room under a body-fluid-sensing UV light it would glow like a supernova.

She turned to me and started unbuckling my belt. I tensed at her touch and I knew I needed to get the hell out of here. I decided on a Jedi mind trick. I removed her hands from my belt and re-buckled it while saying, "That was wonderful." I used all the power in the Force I could muster to make her think we had done the deed and were completing the transactions. I reached into my pocket and pulled out a hundred-credit chip. "Here, keep the change."

She looked at the chip for a second and then back at me and I could tell she was confused, but then she shrugged and snatched the credit chip from my hand and gave me a huge smile. "Thanks. You're a stud."

'_True, so true'_, I thought with a smirk.

"Well, I guess I'll be going." I adjusted my tunic and walked out the door and went in the opposite direction from which we came. I was almost to the end of the hall before she called out. "You're going the wrong way. The exit is that way." She pointed in the opposite direction.

I made a show of looking confused. "Oh sorry." I had the DNA sample; now it was time for a Force recon. As I moved down the hallway I reached out with the Force and attempted to feel the emotions and touch the minds of the occupants nearby. I was searching for a young girl who was probably terrified.

I sucked in a breath as a deluge of sensations rolled over me like a strong, foul current. By the time I was out of that den of sexual depravity I was feeling ill and needed some air. I found Ben and grabbed him by his sleeve. "Let's get out of here."

"Okay," Ben followed me out of the club. "So…what happened back there? Did you sense anything?"

"Ben." My voice was tight with emotion. "I sensed things… vile things, but I didn't see or feel the presence of Sola. I got the impression that the women in the back area were experienced sex workers. I didn't feel the presence of a frightened teenager. I did get your DNA sniffer sample," I handed Ben the DNA _sniffer_. "Can we please call it a day?"

"Sure." Ben said softly as he hailed an airtaxi. I guess he sensed I was upset because he wisely kept quiet during the ride back to our hotel.

I will write more later.

* * *

**_Entry-Closed._**


	10. Chapter 10

_**Entry 18**_

When we arrived to our hotel room I immediately went to shower. I needed to get the stink of cigarras, Armudu Spice, tabac and Marcan herbal smoke out of my hair. I really hate going to clubs that allow smoking or don't have sufficient blowers to filter the air. It's too bad that the hot water couldn't cleanse the decadent images out of my mind. I could have handled Force visions of a sensual nature, but most of what I saw had little to do with sex and more to do with humiliation, bondage, and sadism. I shuddered under the hot water as I tried to purge my mind of the imagery. The thought that a young teen may be forced into that life made me sick to my stomach.

When I exited the 'fresher, I found Ben staring at his datapad intently. "Are you tracking those men?"

He nodded. "It looks like they are on the midnight shift at one of the local mines. We'll stop by GAS headquarters tomorrow to see if they have Sola's medical records or at least a list of distinguishing marks on her body to help us identify her. I'd like to see if these guys actually saw our victim or somebody that looked like her. Then I think we should go talk to her father. When we're are in his house maybe we can pick up something with the Force."

He shut off the datapad and stood. "I hope you saved me some hot water. I smell like a rancid spice stick."

"The water was hot when I got out." I paused for a moment. "Ben, do you think the women there were slaves or employees? I didn't see any slave collars."

"They could have explosive chip implants, but I think the women who work on the floor of the club were employees. It wouldn't make sense to put slaves out in the open. They're probably sold to individuals and kept in isolation."

I sighed deeply. If that were true it would be almost impossible to find Sola. "We should talk to your father about this when we get back. Maybe the Jedi can do something to close down this illicit trade."

Ben shook his head. "The Jedi don't have any enforcement authority without orders from the Chief-of-State and the Galactic Alliance doesn't like to get involved in planetary law enforcement unless they are invited to assist. From what we've been told the locals turn a blind eye to this illegal trade. There's nothing much we can do, other than report what's going on."

"You're right," I admitted. "Any change has to come from the local authorities."

"The best we can do is find Sola and make sure she's safe." Ben grabbed a change of underclothes and walked to the 'fresher. "We'll start fresh tomorrow morning."

* * *

_**Entry 19**_

The next day we took a taxi back to GAS headquarters. There we accessed Sola's medical records and discovered she did have a small red blemish on her upper thigh, just like the one man described. That is another thing I found odd. If the birthmark was as small as a fingernail how did he remember such an unremarkable fact? I would think he'd be drunk on intoxicants and oblivious to anything but doing the deed.

We then requested an opportunity to talk to Baron Zekl. Ben wanted to get into the house to allow me to use my post-cognitive Force abilities. When I touch items I sometimes get a vision showing me the last person who held the object, what it was used for or other events surrounding the object. Ben wishes he had this ability. It is _really, really_ helpful in investigations. That is why he always drags me down to the GAS crime lab on Coruscant. I personally HATE using this skill in criminal investigations. It's awful. Ben will hand me a knife and ask me what I can glean from it. The first time he did that to me I dropped the knife and threw up. Kriff! People are evil! I really could have gone the rest of my life without seeing what a serial cannibal did with that knife. Yuck!

One of Captain Norrkin's sergeants drove us to Sola's home to meet her father. Baron Zekl was a stern looking, foul tempered man who didn't even wait until we were seated before he started berating us. He didn't thank us for coming to the planet to assist in the search. Instead he demanded to know why we haven't found his daughter. He questioned our competence and work ethics and accused us of kriffing around the local dens of iniquities instead of trying to help. In other words, he's a jerk.

Ben kept his calm and tried to reassure the Baron that we were doing everything in our power to find his daughter. He asked if we could look around to see if we could pick up anything with our Jedi senses. That initiated a second diatribe from the man. What he didn't know was—while he was verbally abusing us—I was already at work.

We were sitting in the Baron's office and I was immediately aware that something was not right about him. He didn't appear to be a heartbroken father. I sensed no worry or anguish, only annoyance and impatience. I was always told people grieve differently, but he had a coldness about him that made my skin crawl. As I touched the armrest of my chair I closed my eyes and tried to visualize past events that transpired in this office. I could see flashes of the Baron fighting with his daughter before he slapped her and yelled '_You will obey'_. I opened my eyes and interrupted the Baron's tirade. "Baron Zekl, did you have an argument with your daughter before she disappeared?"

He fell silent and gave me a withering gaze. "What business is that of yours?"

I shrugged. "It could explain why she left and went to a bad section of town. There _is_ a spaceport in that area, perhaps she ran away."

The Baron shook his head. "Are you blind or merely stupid? There was a security holovid showing her abduction! Besides, we checked all the manifests. She wasn't on any departing ship."

"You don't deny you two fought," Ben pressed for an answer.

The Baron gave a frustrated grunt. "She is to marry Baron Mekss next month. She was upset. According to Sola, her betrothed is an old, ugly and repulsively obese man whom she did not love. I reminded her that he was also rich, powerful and well connected. Marriages between the various houses on this planet have always been politically motivated. Rarely does a noble marry for love. That's what concubines are for…for the husband that is. She was raised and trained and understood what is expected of her."

_Wow! What a mega-jerk!_

Ben nodded his head feigning commiseration. "I understand. Can we see her bedroom?"

It looked like he was going to refuse, but eventually he stood and led us out of the office and to her room.

It was a large bedroom beautifully decorated with antique furniture, expensive rugs, crown molding and just about every electronic device a teenager would want to include a HoloNet projector, computer and hologame systems. It was the standard spoiled rich kid's room.

Ben turned to the Baron. "Can Jedi Tantiss and I have a moment alone to…meditate?"

The Baron scowled and gave us a dismissive gesture. "Fine, you know where my office is."

I closed the door behind him and looked at Ben. "Could she have run away? Having to marry a old, ugly, fat guy might be a big incentive to do so."

Ben nodded. "Maybe, but if she ran away and was snatched while going to the spaceport, we'll still have to find her."

"Let me see if I could sense anything here." I moved around the room touching her writing table, chairs, walls and windows. I brushed my hand over one windowsill and hesitated. I closed my eyes to concentrate on the Force vision forming in my mind. I saw a young man entering the room through the open window. Sola was saying, **'**_**You shouldn't be here. My father will kill you.**_**'**

The young man looked to be in his late teens or early twenties. He was dark haired, handsome and appeared completely enamored with Sola. _'__**Sola, I can't let you go through with that awful marriage. Run away with me. Please, I love you.'**_

She shook her head. '_**My father would hunt us down. He would rather see me dead than let me go counter to his wishes.'**_

'_**We can depart the planet. I've scrounged up enough money.'**_

She shook her head_**. 'He's resourceful; he'll find me and drag me to the wedding altar kicking and screaming.'**_

The image of the couple then faded. Frustrated I moved around the room to try to discover more information, but I couldn't see anything more. Post-cognitive abilities are sometimes fickle. Occasionally I just get fleeting visions, other times I picked up long complex imageries. Unfortunately I got the abbreviated version this time.

"Did you see anything?" Ben asked.

"Yes." I looked up to him and gave a guarded smile. "I think I did. Maybe we should go see those men you have tagged."


	11. Chapter 11

_**ENTRY 20**_

Ben and I went back to the hotel room and got to work tracking down the young men. We picked up their signals and the Planetary Tracking System pinned them to a rundown apartment complex in a high crime rate neighborhood. Ben's tracking devices were so sensitive he was able to pinpoint their position to an exact apartment. Records showed three men rented the flat: Kejy Drak, Jsaplo Loen and Rendy Loen.

Ben pulled up employment photo documentation for the three men and I made a positive identification of Sola's young man as Rendy Loen. Jsaplo Loen was Rendy's older brother. According to the records, Drak was no relation to the Loen brothers. Ben pulled up their police records and found that the Loen brothers were clean. Drak had one misdemeanor court date pending. It was a petty larceny charge for stealing items from the corner drugstore.

Ben looked up at me and shrugged. "They're not what I would call the usual suspects." He stood and put on his Jedi cloak. "Let's take a ride to their apartment and have a little talk with them."

When we arrived to their apartment door Ben took out his DNA analyzer and smiled. "She's been here."

"You think she is with her boyfriend Rendy?"

"That would be our best case scenario. The worst case would be her boyfriend tricked her and sold her off."

"Yeah, that would be the ultimate betrayal." Ben went to ring the doorbell, but I stopped him. "Wait, how do you want to play this?"

Ben looked a little confused. "Play this?"

"Yeah, I've seen police holovids. Good cop, bad cop. Which do you want me to be?"

Ben laughed and shook his head. "Talon, we're Jedi Knights. We don't play a version of Jedi cop, Sith cop."

I was a little disappointed, but I guess having a Jedi Knight yelling and intimidating suspects would sully the Order's reputation.

Ben rang the door buzzer. After a few moments a man we identified as Kejy Drak came to the door. He looked at us confused. "Yeah?"

Ben pulled out his identification. "My name is Ben Skywalker." He motioned toward me. "This is Talon Tantiss. We're Jedi Knights working on the behalf of the Galactic Alliance Security and the local authorities in the search for a missing…."

That was all that he got out before this guy tried to bolt out the front door. He didn't get far before Ben and I got a Force hold on the man holding him fast. "Let me go! I didn't do anything!"

"Then why are you running?" I said as I grabbed him by the collar and started pulling him back toward his apartment.

"What's going on here?" came a voice from within the dwelling. We turned to find Jsaplo Loen standing in the doorway still dressed in his work clothes. He was a pale, gaunt looking man who looked much older than the twenty-eight years of age that his records indicated. "You're the guys from the club. I thought you were cops."

"We're not the police, but Jedi Knights on temporary duty here to search for a missing woman," Ben explained. "Are you Jsaplo Loen?"

"Yeah, but I don't know anything about a missing woman."

Ben pulled out the DNA analyzer. "This device shows the DNA of Sola Zekl is in and around this apartment."

The man smirked. "Is she the girl you showed us last night? If so, I already told you I made out with her. Her DNA was all over me and I brought it home."

Ben gave him a knowing look. "The level of DNA is much too high to be explained by transference. She was inside this apartment. We'll call in a forensics team and I am sure we will find her fingerprints."

The thin man sighed deeply before he pointed to his friend. "He knows nothing. Let him go and I'll tell you everything."

Ben shook his head. "We're not letting a potential suspect go until we talk."

The two men looked at each other for a moment before Jsaplo nodded and motioned us to enter. I kept a grip on the other man's collar until we got inside. I then pushed him down on the couch that occupied the main room of the apartment. Loen sat down next to his roommate. "Sola Zekl was here," he admitted.

Ben nodded. "Where is she now?"

Jsaplo took a deep breath and let it out. "She's dead. I killed her."

My stomach dropped. This was not how I hoped this case would turn out.

Ben gazed at the man intensely. "Where's her body?"

Jsaplo leered at Ben. It was an expression that made me want to smack it right off his face.

"I dumped her body in a smelting furnace. There's nothing left of her."

Ben didn't react in the way I expected. He laughed at the man. "You expect me to believe that?"

I could feel a spike of panic from Jsaplo. "It's true."

"How did you get ahold of her?" Ben asked. "Were you and your buddies the ones who kidnapped her?"

I would feel a twinge of panic from the other man now and I suspect Ben was spot on in his assumption that these men were the kidnappers.

"No, I bought her on the slave market. I took her here. The sex got a little rough and I accidently killed her."

"So, you're telling me a low paying miner saved enough money up to buy a sex slave. Why pay all that money for one woman when you can rent them at the local sex clubs?"

He averted his eyes and shrugged. "The local sex clubs don't like it when you accidently kill their girls."

Ben crossed his arms in front of his chest as he gazed down at the man with a slight smirk on his face. "You would have had to save for years to buy a woman. Miners are usually not the thrifty type. I can't see you saving the thousands of credits needed to buy a young female."

"I can prove it." He pointed to a datapad on a nearby table. "Hand me my datapad and I will pull up my bank records. You'll see I had the credits and then withdrew it."

"Can you get that for me Talon?"

I walked over and retrieved the datapad and tossed it to the man. He punched at the screen for a few seconds and then handed the datapad back to me. On the screen was bank account information for a Jsaplo Loen. "He had five thousand credits in his account." I looked at Ben. "A day after Sola's kidnapping he withdrew four thousand credits."

"This is all on me." Jsaplo said defiantly. "My roommate didn't know anything. He has warrants for shoplifting; that's why he ran."

Ben rocked back on his heels and cocked and eyebrow. "And why exactly are you confessing all of this?"

Jsaplo looked confused at the line of questioning. "I…uhh…I feel guilty. I deserve to go to jail. I've…" he was interrupted by a coughing fit. He brought up his sleeve to muffle his cough. When the attack subsided I notice there were flecks of blood on his hand and tunic. I grabbed his arm to get a better look. "You're sick."

The man grimaced. "Ore lung. I'm dying."

"Ore Lung is treatable," Ben pointed out.

"The mining company keeps our hours just under forty hours a week so they don't have to provide us with medical or dental benefits. I don't have insurance."

"But the treatment is not that expensive. Your five thousand credits would have paid for a large percentage of the medical care needed. Why waste the money on a girl?"

A sad expression crossed his face. "Sometimes the right woman is worth the credits."

I wasn't sure why we were still talking to this guy. We should have stun-cuffed him by now and hauled his butt off to jail, but Ben remained standing in front of the man staring him down. "Where's your brother Rendy?"

Jsaplo Loen took in a sharp breath and I could see perspiration start to bead on his forehead. "He quit his crappy job working for a caterer and left this sleemhole of a town." He stood up from the couch and held his hands out in front of him inviting us to cuff him. "Listen, you got me. I confess. I killed Sola. Take me in."

Ben chuckled and pushed him back down on the couch. "Jsaplo Loen, you are trying way too hard to be arrested."

The sickly man began to squirm in his seat. "That's because I'm guilty."

"You're guilty of something, but not murder. I have a feeling Sola is alive and well and with your brother."

The man turned white in the face. "No, she's dead. Tell her father I killed her."

"Listen Jsaplo," Ben said slowly. "I know it was you, your roommate here and your brother that snatched Sola…which isn't a crime if Sola went along with you willingly."

"She's dead!" he insisted.

"I know that's what you want her father to believe. If she's dead he won't look for her. Sola knew her father would never let her marry your brother and if she ran away he would never stop looking for her…unless he thought she was dead. Four thousand credits is a lot of money. Money you probably were saving to get medical treatment, but instead you gave it to your brother…probably for forged passports and passage for two off planet."

I could see a tear running down the man's face. "She's dead. I killed her," he repeated like a mantra.

"Knowing you'll die without treatment, I guess life in prison doesn't frighten you, but I don't want to send an innocent man to jail." Ben turned to me. "My friend here has a unique Force ability. He can touch objects and receive visions of the past concerning those objects. He'll be able to tell me where they've gone if you made those plans in this apartment."

"If you know so much, why are you doing this?" The man said angrily. " Why can't you let her be?"

Ben's face softened. "Sola _is_ seventeen years old. She is considered an adult on this planet. She has every right to leave on her own accord. I am investigating a kidnapped girl. If you can prove to me she left willingly and is alive and well…then I can honestly say I couldn't find a kidnapping victim. Can you get her on a transceiver?"

The man stared at Ben for a long pause. "I heard you say your name was Skywalker. Any relation to Luke Skywalker?"

Ben nodded. "He's my father."

Jsaplo looked over to his friend. "What do you think?"

"His dad was the hero of the rebellion. I'd trust a Skywalker."

The man heaved a sigh. "If I help you, do you swear you'll go away and not tell her father she's alive?"

Ben nodded. "I just need to know she'll alright."

Jsaplo slowly stood and walked over to a HoloNet transceiver.

"Talon and I will stand out of sight. Just get Sola on the transceiver and ask her how she is doing. If she doesn't appear under duress…then we can forget about this entire fiasco."

"Okay." The man sat down in front of the transceiver and pushed a series of buttons. After a moment the face of a young man appeared. "Jsaplo," the man said happily. "How are things working out?"

Rendy's older brother gave a forced smiled. "The authorities believe Sola is kidnapped and possibly dead."

"Good," Rendy said with a chuckle. "I'm sure her father hasn't shed a tear for his daughter…maybe for his messed up wedding plans, but not for Sola."

"Can I see her?" Jsaplo asked.

Rendy gave his brother a guarded look, but then turned and called to somebody out of sight. "Jsaplo would like to see you."

After a moment the beautiful face of Sola Zekl appeared. "Jsaplo! I can't thank you enough for your help." She gave a broad smile as tears of joy ran down her cheeks. "We'll pay you back. Every credit."

The older man smiled. "Consider it a wedding present Sola. You make my brother very happy."

"That is so sweet, but it is too much Jsaplo. We'll get the money back to you. We know how much you wanted that new speeder."

The elder Loen gave a dry chuckle. "That's okay. I don't really need a speeder. I just wanted to make sure you got off planet alright and you two are well."

"We are," Sola reached out and pulled Rendy closer to her. "Thanks to you we're wonderful."

Loen gave a soft smile. "Good. I'll let you go. I love you two."

"We love you also," the two said on the other end before the connection was cut. He turned in his seat and looked at us. "Is that good enough?"

"Yes." Ben gave a sad smile. "You didn't tell them you were saving the money for medical treatments."

Loen shook his head with an air of resignation. "I never told my brother I was sick. It would worry him too much. When he needed the money I told him I had some that I was saving for a speeder. He would never have taken the money if he knew the truth." Jsaplo turned to us. "So what are you going to do?"

"Talon, can you pass me his datapad please." I handed over the device. Ben started tapping on it and then handed it to the older brother. "I booked you a flight to Coruscant. Report to the Jedi Temple and ask for Jaden Tantiss. He's my cousin," he motioned his head towards me. "And Talon's brother. He's also a doctor. He can be trusted to keep a secret. I'll make sure you get the treatments you need. Just get there. Other than that, we're marking this case as unsolved."

The man broke out in a sob. "Thank you."

"The local authorities will still be searching for her, so lay low. You may want to scrub down this apartment with a ten percent bleach solution, vacuum everything and wash all your clothing and bed sheets. You don't need roving DNA trackers zeroing in on this apartment." Ben turned to me. "Come on Talon. Let's go."

As we left the apartment I looked over to Ben as we walked down the hallway. "The guy was willing to die for his brother."

Ben shrugged. "That doesn't surprise me. I would die to protect my family." He gave me a smirk. "Even you."

I was touched by his admission. Ben and I grew up together and were as close as brothers. "Same here."

We exited the building and walked down the street in silence feeling a bit awkward at all the brotherly love talk.

"He probably didn't see himself in much danger. I have a feeling he had all the different possibilities planned out," Ben finally said. "If we did arrest him he could recant his confession and then refuse to make further comments under oath. As soon as he in in custody he would receive medical treatment for his disease because he is a ward of the state. It usually takes months or years for a defendant to go to trial. By the time he is cured he could get his lawyer to send a message to his brother. Sola could go to a local Galactic Alliance Security office on whatever planet she was living on and give a statement that she is alive and well and provide DNA as proof. The charges would be dropped and Jsaplo walked out a free and cured man. Her father would know she was alive, but by then she would probably be married and possibly with child."

"Smart man." I looked over to Ben. "This is going to ruin your perfect _'Case Solved'_ record."

"Hey, I solved it. I'm just keeping the results to myself."

"True. I think this is cause for celebration." I gave my cousin a one-arm hug around his shoulder. "Let's go to the Club _Euphoria_ and party."

Ben pushed me away. "No karking way!"

"Hey, maybe you can get another lap dance from that cute Zeltron." I joked. "I can't wait to tell the girls about your run-in with her."

He gave me a murderous look. "I'll tell Valla, not you! You'll exaggerate! So keep your mouth shut or I'll kick you in your MLD." He then grinned wildly. "I know you used it on the flight here. I could sense your startled response through the Force. That thing gets a_ big_ reaction out of you." He put up his hands and shook them while making a startled expression. "Oh, oh, oh," he made a mocking sensual moan.

"You're so full of it," I grumbled.

He laughed even harder. "Did you get the MLD's comlink number?"

I gave Ben a punch in the shoulder. "I hate that thing."

"Is that why I saw you drink a liter of juice before we left?" He gave me a smug smile. "Promise me you'll let me tell Valla first."

I shook my head in defeat. "Fine, I won't say anything to Valla unless you ask for my input."

_Damn it! I wanted to tell this story!_


End file.
